Saturday, November 3, 2012

Welcome to Studio
Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into
their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related
question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive
we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard.
The following week we choose a random winner.

This week's winner is Leah Curtis! Congratulations! You have won a bead set and copper rings from Gaea! Send Gaea an email with your address and she will get your prize out to you soon!

Ears To You provides earrings to women under-going treatment for any type of cancer. Those women that have gone through chemo-therapy treatments will tell you that a pair of earrings can do wonders to lifta girl's spirit and make her feel loved, special and beautiful during such a difficult time, especially after losing all her hair.

The purpose of this blog hop is for each participant to make a collection of earrings to donate to the Ears To You organization. I'm an earring girl myself and I adore making them. So, I jumped at the chance to create something with healing love for my fellow sisters dealing with this disease. I created these 5 pairs of earrings specifically for the lovely recipients of the Ears To You program. All my earrings are made using hand-forged copper components from one of my very favorite artisans of all-time, Shannon LeVart of Miss Fickle Media.

"Serenity Lotus"

"Healing Knots"

"Higher Power"

"We Are Connected"

"Warm Embrace"

I'm so grateful that I found out about Ears To You. It is a fantastic opportunity for me to use my jewelry-making skills to give back. I'll take almost any excuse to create jewelry, but when it's for a worthy cause like this, it just makes the reason that much more meaningful and full-filling.

Our hop host, Amy Freeland is one of the most compassionate and generous jewelry artists I've ever come across. She donates jewelry and a percentage of all her Etsy sales to many charities and non-profits on a consistent basis to help raise awareness. Her commitment to giving to these causes is awe-inspiring. She has even developed a structure for her jewelry donations categorized by color called "The Compassionate Colors Project". Wow, It's a genius idea! You can read more about this concept on her blog and even join her facebook group if you enjoy giving your jewelry to charity and want to connect with others that enjoy the same.

Have you donated your jewelry, profits or jewelry-making skills to a charity or nonprofit? What is your favorite organization to give to?

Do you know of any charities accepting jewelry and/or bead donations? Please share with us!

Leave
a comment answering any of these questions and you will be entered for a
chance to win a digital copy of my Bohemian Knotted Earrings TUTORIAL. The PDF file will be sent to the winner via
email once I receive the winner's email address.

This is a blog hop!

I can't wait to see everyone's earrings! Please join me and visit the other artists donating earrings and participating in the

28 comments:

Great earrings Erin and a great blog hop - a big pat on the back to Amy for it! I like to donate earrings to the Santana House for their Prom Project each year and I also like to donate to the 7000 Bracelets of Hope for rare diseases. My soft spot though is cancer donations each year. So many of my family members and friends have been affected with so many different forms of cancer through out my life - so giving where and how I can is a priority for me.

These are great earrings and fun ones too. I know I would have appreciated any of these pairs. I love the idea of being able to create earrings for women under going chemo. It's a terrific idea and one I may just keep on doing.

That is awesome! I somehow missed this or I would have participated. I love to donate to causes and try to find one a month that I can donate to. I just made a bracelet this week for the 7000 Bracelets for Hope and also donated to a local event that is happening tonight as a fundraiser for the hospital. These are all so great! You are the earring queen! I will check this out. Enjoy the day, Miss Erin!

I have not donated to any charity yet, but I have a breast cancer phone charm in my shop, that if it sells I am donating proceeds to Breast Cancer in honor of a friend of mine that had/has it and another that died from it in about 5 months.

I wish I had seen this so I could have joined. I may just have to make some earrings and send them anyway...I love that it is for women going through cancer treatment. I just went through surgery for cancer last summer and I was so lucky not to have to have chemo or radiation but I think it would be great to get a handmade gift of beautiful earrings if i had. I give 10% of my sales to my local Humane Society and I try to give to the ASPCA whenever possible. During our last American Cancer Society Relay for Life I gave several pieces of my jewelry to one of the vendors to sell and raise some additional money.Thanks,CoryTealwaterDesigns

Erin, first off ... you know I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your boho style! It is stunning and continues to inspire me always. As for your question, I try to donate as much as I can. Both my jewelry as well as clothing, and at the moment given hurricane Sandy the later will be in order for me around my little corner of the world.

I love the hops that are organized around charities, and I've participated in the 7000 bracelets for hope, which is how I met the wonderful and lovely Christine at One Kiss Creations. I've also made bracelets for cancer research with a friend in Israel who makes buttons and donates 50% of her proceeds. But I've also got a friend who is in stage 4 breast cancer and been fighting it for about 3 years now. She is in her early 30s with young kids. Breaks my heart, but she is so strong and positive! She amazes me. I will be sending her jewelry to sell to help pay for the many, many bills stacking up. While it absolutely makes sense to donate to organizations, I also believe in helping the ones you know.

I've got a donation 'ticker' on my site and I'm still a little shy of my goal. I'll need to update it this month to see if I've met it!

thank you for donating your amazing jewelry - it will surely bring a smile to those that receive them!

Erin, your earrings are going to bring a lot of smiles to the women who receive them!

I was just beginning to bead (and accumulating more pieces than I could possibly wear!) when the earthquake struck Haiti in early 2010. I was so touched by the faces that flickered across my TV screen each night and impressed by the work Doctors Without Borders was doing in that area, that I found my reason to continue beading - I donate all my profits to the continuing work of Doctors Without Borders in areas of crisis.

I love the fiber in your designs and all the earrings are so different I am sure they will bring many smiles. This hop and the Ears to you cause is the first time I have donated jewelry to a large charity but I give pieces each year to different fund raisers and I always have beads for Beads of Courage.

I donate yearly to an auction to benefit my local United Way. I also donate to regularly to a girlfriend who holds fundraisers to raise money to assist autistic kids afford service dogs. I just wish that there was a registry online where charities could request donations. I know that I would donate to more but I just dont have time to search them out

I donate yearly to an auction to benefit my local United Way. I also donate to regularly to a girlfriend who holds fundraisers to raise money to assist autistic kids afford service dogs. I just wish that there was a registry online where charities could request donations. I know that I would donate to more but I just dont have time to search them out

I love the earrings you made, Erin, and the names you chose for them. I regularly donate jewelry to a fundraiser that provides transitional housing to displaced women and their children. (Don't enter me for the giveaway, I already have these tutorials).

To be honest, I've never heard of Ears to You, but I think it's a great charity! I've made chemo caps for many people over the years but never thought of jewelry as something to be donated as well. It's definitely something I'd like to do!http://www.etsy.com/shop/sister2six?ref=si_shop

The Ears to You campaign - what a lovely thing to do. I didn't know there was such a need. Your earrings are great.I have donated to my children's school at Christmas time, and I have donated the proceeds from a sale to benefit a local family whose child developed a rare terminal disease.Andrea

I donate all profit to charity - always have. I'm currently giving to an orphanage in Mexico and another in Madagascar monthly. I'm also raising money to buy kids shoes in 3rd world countries for Christmas. I have a fundraiser going until Christmas to help hurricane sandy victims. Oh and I am working with another artist, Marian Heintz, who was featured on Love My Art Jewelry to raise money to help give women in Haiti job training. I wish I could say I've raised millions for these organizations but I'm not there, yet! Every bit helps especially when as little as $5 can save a child from starving to death.

Oh and my business is part of a 501(c)(3) so people could donate beads to be used to make jewelry for any of the causes I mentioned. I don't know of any other specific organizations that are looking for beads or jewelry but most charities do silent auctions and accept jewelry.